Making maple sugar candy recipe

Well I hope everyone had a great Memorial day weekend. I had a pretty busy one myself. Well, today I thought I’d tell you a step by step recipe on how to use that great pure Vermont maple syrup to make maple sugar candy. It’s really easy, but there are a few tricks you need to know so you don’t make a huge mess!

Here’s a list of the things you need to have to make the candy:

1. A quart of pure Vermont maple syrup, which will make about 2 lbs. of candy, grade A is best.
2. A little bit of butter or vegetable oil.
3. A candy thermometer that can read as high as 240F.
4. A deep pot or pan, one that is narrow and deep works best
5. Candy molds, the rubber ones work best

Directions on how to make maple sugar candy

1. Pour hot water in the pan, place the thermometer in it and heat to just boiling. As soon as the water boils, note the temperature of it and write it down.
2. Pour the water out and fill the pan with the pure Vermont maple syrup. Now, it will foam up pretty high when boiling, this is why I said to use a deep pan. Put a few drops of the butter or oil in it, this will help keep the foam down a bit.
3. Boil it on high heat WITHOUT stirring, until it is just 32F degrees above the boiling point of water that you had noted earlier. Watch it very carefully here, as it can really foam up fast and get very hot once it reaches that temperature. As soon as it reaches that 32F degrees above the boiling point of water take it off the hot burner and let it start to cool for 2 to 5 minutes.
4. Start stirring the maple syrup in a steady manner, not beating it or going to fast, just a steady stirring. A wooden spoon works great for this. Now, here is the most trickiest part of the whole thing. As you stir it and it gets cooler, it will lose it’s gloss look and start to become opaque and thick. As soon as you see that, pour it into the molds.

If you wait too long, the maple syrup will harden in the pan and be too hard. If that happens pour in a cup or so of water, slowly reheat it until the sugar dissolves and start again. If you pour it out to soon, it will never harden in the molds. Pour it out right when you see it lose it’s gloss and start to have color to it.
5. If you use the rubber molds you don’t need to grease them or anything. You can also use aluminum cupcake foils to pour the maple syrup in if you can’t find molds. Then just let them cool, carefully take them out, let them dry on a rack for a few hours and that’s it!

There are lots of maple sugar candy rubber molds you can buy. They work great and they have many designs to make the candy look cute. So that’s how you make pure Vermont maple syrup sugar candy, at least at home without commercial equipment. Let me know how you make out if you try it. Just be very careful and don’t burn yourself!